


Like Brother and Sister

by ilwin



Category: Doctor Who (1963)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-09
Updated: 2020-04-09
Packaged: 2021-03-02 02:47:33
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,414
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23557837
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ilwin/pseuds/ilwin
Summary: Turlough finds out that Tegan draws sometimes as well.
Kudos: 4





	Like Brother and Sister

**Author's Note:**

> The story takes place after Big Finish stories Craddle of the Snake and before Kiss of Death. No spoilers though, except presence of (older) Nyssa, if that can be considered as a spoiler.   
> Thanks to Lissy-Strata for beta-read.

A knock on the door interrupted Tegan from her reading. "Yes?"

The door opened and Turlough walked in.

"Oh. It’s you," said Tegan, disappointed. She closed the book expecting the calm afternoon to come to an end and trouble to start.

Turlough looked just as excited as her. "The Doctor sent me to check if you’re really okay. You know… after that Mara thing…" he said in kind of a bored voice.

"Me?" laughed Tegan. "I wasn’t the one trying to take control over Manussa…"

"That was the Mara," said Turlough lazily, still standing in the doorway.

"But not in my head either, this time," answered Tegan, smiling widely. "Are you just going to stand there or are you going to come in?"

Turlough hesitated, since his task was only to check Tegan’s health was restored.

Tegan grinned. "I won’t bite."

Turlough wasn’t keen on visiting Tegan, but then he spotted the picture on the wall and walked in for a closer look. It was a landscape with a seashore drawn with an obvious bit of talent. "Who drew that?" he asked, curious, looking at the picture closely.

"Me," answered Tegan contentedly and Turlough turned to her surprised.

"You?"

"No need to be so shocked," laughed Tegan, "I can use my hands just like my mouth."

Turlough regained his composure and returned to his usual slightly sarcastic face. "I thought you were a stewardess," he noted.

"And _you_ are obviously an expert in technology but you do some drawing yourself from time to time, don’t you?"

Turlough snorted. "It's just that I would've expected that someone with possible artistic talent would have had a better sense of fashion," he teased.

"Said someone who hardly takes off school uniform," replied Tegan without hesitation.

Turlough scowled. "Mouth on legs," he murmured with aversion, but continued studying the picture thoughtfully.

"So…" he spoke after a moment of silence. "Did you study arts?"

" Does it look that good? " Tegan smiled and Turlough rolled his eyes in pretend aversion.

"Of course not," he answered seriously, "but it doesn’t look completely awful either. With enough hard work, you could be almost as good as I am."

Tegan joined his teasing. "Don’t make me laugh! Your pictures are just poor scribbles. You could sit there drawing for days and you wouldn’t be even half that good," she claimed, pointing at the picture on the wall.

Turlough got into the competitive spirit. "Okay… Let’s try it." He narrowed his eyes. "We draw something now and we’ll see whose picture is better. And drawn the fastest," he challenged.

"You can’t measure art with speed," objected Tegan.

Turlough smiled mischievously. "Are you afraid you’d lose?"

Tegan straightened up. "Of course not, Eton boy!"

"It’s Brendon!" corrected Turlough automatically. He smiled. "Alright, kangaroo girl. What are we gonna draw?"

Tegan put her hands on her hips. "You choose. You’d say I’m trying to pick something easy," she said smiling.

"Right," agreed Turlough. "What about a landscape?" he suggested, thinking of the endless rows of landscapes he drew back at Brendon school.

"Any in particular?" asked Tegan as she walked across the room to the table where she stored her drawing supplies.

"Hmm," said Turlough thoughtfully. "Let’s just go with some favourite place. So that you won’t say I’m purposely thinking out something difficult."

"You can’t scare me," Tegan scorned. "But you better not cheat and pick some place that's just an empty plain," she warned him, taking a notebook out of the drawer.

"The same goes for you," Turlough reminded her as he rubbed his hands. "Alright, pass me some paper and a pencil."

Tegan seemed appalled. "Hey! You’re not gonna use my pencils! You’d ruin them!" she protested.

"Yours?" Turlough laughed. "Did you pack any luggage before boarding the TARDIS?" he sneered and Tegan scowled.

"No," she muttered and reluctantly took out another sketchbook and pencil and handed them to Turlough.

She stayed sitting by the table, while Turlough went to the opposite side of the room and sat in an armchair. It was almost like they were afraid they would cheat and copy from each other.

There was a moment of silence full of concentration while they thought of the right thing to draw. Then — almost at the same moment — both of them seemed to be decided and started to make first lines.

"So…" Turlough broke the silence after a while. "How long do you plan to stay?"

"Stay?" Tegan raised her head and looked at him uncomprehendingly.

"Travelling. With the Doctor," explained Turlough, carefully studying the lines he had already made to decide on the next step to make.

"Oh," said Tegan and went on with her own drawing. "I don’t know. I didn’t think about it. As long as it’ll be okay, I guess. I wouldn’t get third chance to travel through time and space, would I?"

It took a moment until Turlough realized what he had heard and looked at her confused. "Third? What do you mean "third"?"

Tegan smiled widely. "I mean _third_. I was left behind once. Accidentally. And then I bumped into the Doctor and Nyssa again later. Accidentally."

Turlough grimaced. "Well, you are kind of an accident," he remarked spitefully and Tegan jumped in her chair. "Hey! Now you can talk, you posh school boy assassin!" she exclaimed in offended voice.

Turlough gave her a black look. "That was Black Guardian’s job. I was just…"

"Hanging around, trying to kill the Doctor," completed Tegan.

"I was under his control. Just like you with the Mara," snapped Turlough.

"That’s not the same," objected Tegan, "you had a choice to help Black Guardian! You don’t know what the Mara was like, you didn’t encounter it."

"As you didn’t with Black Guardian’s power," replied Turlough and then cast down his eyes. "I just wanted to go back home," he added in much more silent voice.

Tegan watched him thoughtfully for a moment. "And where is that? Your home," she asked, already calm again.

Turlough didn’t answer, just fixed his eyes on the paper and then went on drawing with kind of dogged expression on his face.

Tegan shrugged and returned to her drawing.

There was another moment of silence.

"I’m from Brisbane," spoke Tegan after a while, moving the pencil along the paper carefully. "But I always wanted to see more than just my hometown. So I studied languages and stuff. And I used to travel during summer a lot. It’s funny how the borders move when you see something more isn’t it?" she looked briefly at Turlough to find out he was drawing quietly, apparently not listening to her. She didn’t wait for his response, though, and returned to her own picture. "I mean, like when I was a child it was so much to go for a trip just behind the town. And then go to Sydney. And then over the sea. To Asia. Or to England. And then…"

"And then you met the Doctor," spoke Turlough showing he was listening to her after all.

Tegan nodded. "Exactly. I met the Doctor and the borders didn’t just move but jumped away. All of time and space… And I still wanted the Doctor to take me back home at first, because I was scared," she laughed and looked at Turlough.

He was watching her with an unusually sad face. "Yes," he said slowly and sighed. It wasn’t obvious what he was answering to, but Tegan didn’t try to elicit the reason, because of his expression.

"You’re a strange guy, Turlough," said Tegan thoughtfully.

"I’m not a human," he replied simply with his eyes fixed on the drawing again.

Tegan rolled her eyes. "I know… But that’s neither Nyssa nor the Doctor and they’re not like that… Well, the Doctor is… the Doctor," she paused. "Anyway! What I meant was — you’re all posh and proud and superior and selfish and then you sound just completely different, so one almost feels sorry for you and then ZAP! — your usual sniffy self just pops out again and one must think — did I really just see him looking like he felt homesick?" Tegan fell silent, watching Turlough questioningly.

He just kept staring at his drawing and didn’t answer.

"Alright," Tegan sighed, "don’t talk to me. Don’t ruin your reputation of being an untrustworthy, posh, strange ginger boy."

She meant to keep quiet until she finished her drawing, but her nature just wouldn't let her.

"And you? How long do _you_ plan to keep travelling with the Doctor?"

Turlough finally lifted his head and looked at her. " I don’t know. As long as the Doctor lets me stay."

Tegan wondered about his previous words. "But you miss your home, don’t you? Don’t you wanna go home?"

Turlough stopped drawing but quickly covered his falter by carefully examining his work. "Well, like you said — I wouldn’t get another chance to travel with the Doctor, would I?" he answered evasively and slowly went on with drawing. "You never thought of studying arts?" he asked, as if he was trying to change the subject of talk. "The picture is actually rather good." He pointed at the picture on the wall.

Tegan frowned a bit. Alright, posh Eton boy, keep your secrets. "No, I didn’t," she answered aloud. "Do I look like an artist? I like to draw, it’s relaxing, but study all the stuff around? No thanks!" Tegan laughed and shook her head.

"And you?" she asked. "Did you study arts? Wherever you actually went to school at home?"

Turlough didn’t look at her, still going on with his drawing. "No. I studied technics and related subjects. Drawing is just… a way to relax, just like for you," he said examining the lines on the paper carefully.

It didn’t last very long and Tegan put away her pencil and smiled, satisfied. "So… I’m finished, Eton boy. How’s your masterpiece?"

"It’s Brendon," muttered Turlough absently, watching his paper closely. "I’m done as well," he added and looked at her with satisfaction.

"So," noted Tegan, "no one was faster. How do we decide whose picture’s better now?"

Turlough still sat on the chair like he was afraid of coming closer to Tegan. "Well, that’s simple, isn’t it? We just look at them and…"

"And I’ll say mine is better while you say yours is," nipped in Tegan laughing. "Oh no, Eton boy, we need someone who’ll decide it for us. Which means Nyssa or the Doctor," she added informatively. "And I think Nyssa would be best for this, she…"

"She’ll side with you!" protested Turlough crossly.

"Oh, you think so?" Tegan crossed her arms. "She liked you from the very beginning when you were going around trying to kill the Doctor!" She reminded and frowned slightly. "And the Doctor would side with you too, of course. No one is going to side with _me_ on this ship!" she added in rather aggrieved voice.

Turlough rolled his eyes. "Really! You girls just hold together don’t you? You…"

Right at that moment, someone knocked on the door.

"Yeah?" said Tegan. "Come in!"

Nyssa walked in the room. "Tegan, are you…?" She paused when she noticed Turlough.

"Nyssa! You came just in time," spoke Tegan quickly. "We need your help — to decide whose picture is better," she held up the notebook in her hand.

"But Nyssa will side with you," kept protesting Turlough, looking offended.

"No, she won’t!" argued Tegan. "We can’t ask the Doctor, _he_ would _surely_ side with _you_!"

"Why should he? We’re just the travel companions to him, you and Nyssa are friends!"

"Boys stick together, don’t they?"

Nyssa started to chuckle. "Look at you! Fighting each other like my… like brother and sister!" she laughed and the other two stopped, bewildered.

"Well, I’m not going to side with anyone. I promise," she spoke when she stopped laughing. "Show me your pictures."

Tegan handed over her notebook without hesitation, while Turlough stood up from armchair slowly and unwillingly. "You just have to get what you want, don’t you?" he muttered.

"Well, it doesn’t have to be always _your_ way, does it?" Tegan grinned widely and Nyssa smiled to herself once again over their continuous sibling-like hassling.

"I won’t side with Tegan, I promise you, Turlough," she added gently before she took his notebook as well and went to the free chair by the table to make herself comfortable.

"We were drawing a favourite place," remarked Tegan just for the record and stayed standing behind Nyssa so she could see Turlough’s picture. Turlough did the same, and they looked a bit like a mother examining her children's homework.

"Oh," said Nyssa cheerfully. "I forgot which one was whose… But never mind, at least you can’t say I’m siding with anyone now…"

Tegan gave Turlough triumphant look but Turlough just wrinkled his nose in disbelief.

Nyssa was looking at the first picture now. There were some rocks surrounded by a few bushes. Edgy shadows gave an impression of bright sunlight in the middle of a hot day.

It was Tegan’s picture and so she was watching Nyssa’s face carefully to guess if she liked it. Nyssa, of course, had seen some of Tegan’s pictures before and she liked them, but this time it was kind of different and Tegan was little bit nervous.

After a while, Tegan looked at Turlough, who was leaning over Nyssa’s shoulder a bit, watching Tegan’s picture with a slight interest on his face, which was quite much more than he usually let show on his face. Tegan smiled slightly, satisfied.

There was complete silence and Nyssa didn’t say anything about the picture, but after a while, she put it away slowly and looked at the other one.

This time Tegan leaned a bit over her shoulder to look closer at Turlough’s picture curiously.

There were trees. Surely not trees of Earth, judging by the strange leaves and their placement on the trunks. Unlike Tegan’s picture, the atmosphere of this picture appeared to be calm and pleasant with soft shades and small pools of mild light on the ground and tree trunks themselves.

Only after a while, Tegan spotted a tiny little building at the base of one tree and she knitted her brows wondering what the little house was doing there. She wondered as well if Nyssa noticed the little building but didn’t want to ask, afraid it might reveal whose picture was whose.

She raised her eyes and met Turlough’s, who watched her curiously the same way as she watched him before. She nodded slightly in a kind of silent compliment and straightened herself to wait for Nyssa’s judgement.

A while later, Nyssa put both pictures next to each other and fixed her eyes on them.

Then she sighed. "I don’t know… They’re both really good. You did a very good job…" she said slowly and leaned back in the chair. "Who drew which picture?"

"But Nyssa…" Tegan drew out, disappointed. "You must say which one’s better! We won’t tell you which one is which until you say which picture is better!"

Nyssa shook her head. "I really don’t know… They’re very good. They have atmosphere and were made with such care…" She paused and then looked again at Turlough’s picture. "What’s this?" She pointed at the tiny little house. "Some kind of… dwarf house?" She asked smiling slightly.

"It’s not little house. It’s giant trees," answered Turlough promptly and Tegan rolled her eyes. Nyssa had asked to try and determine the artist.

"So that’s your picture, Turlough," she noted, satisfied. "Is it your home then?" she asked and looked at him.

Turlough nodded shortly. "That’s my house," he said briefly and rather quietly so Tegan looked at him carefully. It was one of the rare moments when Turlough didn’t wear his usual superior look.

Then he spotted Tegan watching him and quickly put on a slightly scornful face.

Tegan resisted the urge to stick out her tongue at him and just rolled her eyes again.

"Those trees look magnificent," said Nyssa abstracted, most likely thinking about her own home planet, that was now lost forever. She sighed and turned her eyes to Tegan’s picture again.

"And… that’s somewhere in Australia, Tegan?" she asked then. "Looks like there’s really hot weather at the moment," she noted.

Tegan smiled. "Yeah, that’s near my home back there. I used to go to these rocks pretty often when I went to grammar school."

"Alone?" Turlough couldn’t resist teasing her.

"None of your business, Eton boy," said Tegan cheerfully and turned back to Nyssa. "Now you know whose is whose. But which is better?" she insisted on knowing the winner.

Nyssa stood up from the chair and looked at them. "I’m sorry, but I really can’t say which of the two is better. They’re both very good. Maybe you should ask the Doctor for judgment after all," she suggested.

"Yes," agreed Turlough at once.

"No," said Tegan resolutely at the same moment.

Nyssa laughed again. "You’re really like little children fighting with each other," she said amused and then added more seriously: "There's no need to call the Doctor though. Your pictures are both equally great, really. Don’t you believe me?"

She looked from Tegan to Turlough and then back again, and Tegan suddenly felt embarrassed.

"You’re right, Nyssa," she said, a bit ashamed. "We acted like little children. It’s not important if someone’s picture is better or not. It was kind of competition fever," she laughed and then looked at Turlough. "What do you think, Eton boy? It was your idea to do this after all."

Turlough looked indifferent and it seemed his own competitive mood has passed as well. "Whatever. I won’t insist on getting marks, we’re not in school." He shrugged.

Tegan laughed again. "Then take off your school uniform, Eton boy!"

"It’s Brendon," corrected Turlough emphatically. "And the uniform is rather comfortable, you know," he added stubbornly.

"Really!" Tegan laughed. "Formal trousers, vest and tie and jacket? Come on, Turlough! You’re surely not such a cold bore as you keep acting, are you?"

"I heard you’ve spent lots of time in the TARDIS in your stewardess uniform," returned Turlough with a mischievous grin.

Tegan crossed her arms. "Because I wanted to go back home right away! Why should I change my clothes, when the Doctor promised to get me back _at once_?"

Turlough sneered. "Well, it was surely better than most of the things you keep wearing now."

"Hey!" Tegan took a swing at him only half in fun. "Just because you don’t understand Earth fashion doesn’t mean it’s something bad!"

"It just looks terrible, that’s all I’m saying," replied Turlough mockingly with his usual haughty look.

"You! How could you tell what looks good or bad, you… you… you school uniform!"

Nyssa quickly went to her and took her arm in a comforting gesture. "Tegan, he’s just teasing you," she tried to calm down the situation. "He doesn’t mean it badly, is that right, Turlough?" she turned to him strictly and once again she looked like their mother, this time trying to reconcile her fighting children.

Turlough shrugged a bit. "Of course not. Humans are just so easy to get angry about nothing…" He rolled his eyes and stepped forward to the doors. "I believe I can go now," he noted and left the room before Tegan and Nyssa could say anything else.

Tegan moved first, came loose from Nyssa’s grip and shook her head. "How to lose the mood in no time. Just go near Turlough…" she said crossing her arms.

"Hmm…" said Nyssa thoughtfully, "I think he’s just lonely…"

Tegan turned to her, shocked. "Lonely? Well, he’s trying hard to stay like that forever! With all his posh sniffy manners and all that," snorted Tegan. She tossed her head, annoyed.

Nyssa didn’t seem to be listening properly. "He must miss his home very much," she said, absently looking at Turlough’s picture left on the table.

Tegan grimaced wryly. "And still don’t want to tell a word about it. Maybe he’s escaped criminal after all and all this "let’s kill the Doctor" stuff wasn’t just an accident, huh?"

Nyssa looked at her and silently watched her for a while like she was trying to decide something but then just smiled a bit. "You two are just going to fight all the time, aren’t you?"

"But he started," Tegan blurted out unwillingly and Nyssa started to laugh again.

"Really… Like brother and sister!"


End file.
